Thursday, July 2, 2009

If you've been following our ice cream making adventures you might remember the Chocolate-Covered Bacon Gelato. In that post I mentioned I wanted to try a Fig & Pig Ice Cream. Well, here it is.

(I need to learn how to get better pictures of ice cream.)

This ice cream was inspired by the dessert we had at the Broder's Pasta Bar Anniversary Lunch. We were served vanilla bean ice cream with slices of fresh fig & a crispy piece of bacon. I really loved this dessert and how all the flavors went together. After making the bacon gelato last week though I decided I wanted the ice cream base to have a little different flavor beyond vanilla. This is where the idea to do a honey ice cream came from.

I think this version of bacon ice cream might have been a bigger success than the chocolate-covered. The honey ice cream was incredibly rich & creamy with a mellow sweetness that played well with the salty bacon. We used a good local honey with a nice strong flavor which you can really taste in the ice cream. The fig added another dimension of flavor as well as a some texture. We used dried figs because we can't really get fresh here (according to my produce guy they get too damaged in shipping from CA to sell) & I think the dried ones stand up better in ice cream.

Whisk the egg yolks & honey together in a large bowl until thick & light yellow. Set aside.

Bring the cream and half & half to a boil in a saucepan. Slowly whisk the into the egg & honey. Be careful to do this slowly so you don't scramble the eggs. Return back to saucepan & stir over low heat until thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon (this took me about 25 minutes). Do not allow to boil. Strain into clean container & let cool to room temperature. Stir in the vanilla. Chill until completely cold or overnight.

Cook the chopped bacon until crisp. Remove to a paper towel & let drain. Place the bacon in the freezer for about 10 - 15 minutes.

Process the ice cream according to your machine's instructions. During the last 5 minutes of processing add the frozen bacon & the chopped figs.

Ice cream will be quite soft. Place in an airtight container & freeze until desired consistency is reached.

I just made this, and it turned out so great. I used our homemade oatmeal stout and all cream...so rich and addictive. I'm already planning the next batch. Thanks for posting this. Love your blog...so glad I found it. :)